15th Sep 2019 | Updated at 04:16am 15th Sep 2019

Amazon faces social media backlash over kitchen and toilet mats with Hindu Gods

Tuesday 21st May 2019 12:56 EDT

Amazon is facing social media backlash after they were found to have listed items like toilet seat covers and kitchen and toilet mats with images of Hindu God, especially Ganesh on their website.

Thousand of twitter users backed the call to boycott of the US retailer, including some writing to Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, urging her to take action against the company.

A petition on Change.Org started by Ankur Taneja has already gained almost 300,000 signatures in the UK, demanding an apology and removal or blacklisting of the sellers. The company in a statement reportedly said, “All sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who do not will be subject to action including potential removal of their account.”

The episode is almost a recurrence of an incident in 2017, when the Canadian website of Amazon was spotted selling doormats resembling the Indian tricolour (national flag). Sushma Swaraj at that time threatened to revoke visas of Amazon employees if the doormats were not removed from site.